


Canticum Caelo

by Symphoenae



Series: Musical Callum Saga [4]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Callum does the magic again, F/M, Fluff, Rayla doesn't know how to leave someone alone, Sky magic is fun, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Vulnerability, specifically her idiot mage boyfriend, ten bucks to whoever knows what the title means
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22623571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symphoenae/pseuds/Symphoenae
Summary: Canticum Caelo, the sky spell that was supposed to manipulate the air around the caster to create a unique song. The song was said to reflect the caster as a whole, who they were, what they stood for, everything. It wasn't what Callum was hoping for specifically in a spell for song, but it was interesting enough that he decided he wanted to learn it anyways. Apparently it had a niche purpose in courting or something like that. A pure display of what a person was performed for the person being courted or whatever. He wasn’t going to use it for that. He wanted to use it for himself. But that just brought him to the fact that he was failing to do so, and massively.
Relationships: Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince)
Series: Musical Callum Saga [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624684
Comments: 7
Kudos: 36





	Canticum Caelo

**Author's Note:**

> You guys have no fucking idea the rage I went through trying to make the song for this fic dude. My music studio is consistently imploding in on itself and is always broken and it just got to me today. I still managed to finish the song somehow. God. If you were in my discord you saw firsthand my anger, I was fucking SCREAMING about "LET ME MAKE THE SONG CALLUM DESERVES" even though I knew I'd end up probably hating the finished product cause lol why would I like my work--
> 
> fucking hell man.

This spell was turning out to be a lot harder to cast than Callum expected. And, truth be told, it was making him a little angry. He expected this spell to be a little easier than the other ones considering the lack of a real purpose this spell had to even be a thing in the first place. It wasn't a spell for growing wings or casting lightning from one's fingertips. Even Zubeia had told him that she expected him to have no problems casting and mastering it, taking into account his fast learning of the other spells he has under his belt. That fact alone made it sting a little more that he was having such an issue getting it to work. He just wanted one spell for himself, was that too much to ask? A spell he learned for his sake that had to do with nothing but him. And yet, it evaded him even more.

What was this blasted spell he was trying to learn? Callum could call it many things at this point, mostly negative things, but it was what he'd been wondering about for days. All that time he spent wondering if there was a spell related to song in the sky arcanum, only to find out there was, in fact, a song spell, and he couldn't get it to work at all. Granted, it wasn't going to work in the same way he was originally thinking of, but he'd accepted at that point that being able to project a memory of a song he'd heard before out into the air around him so others could hear it was a reach. Still, he'd gone to ask Queen Zubeia if she knew anything about musical spells, and now here he was, angrily grumbling the same two words over and over with no change or improvement.

" _ Canticum Caelo...! _ " He called out again, trying to draw the rune to match to no avail. Nothing from his fingertips, not even a single spark of sky magic. He groaned. "Oh, what's even the point at this rate. It was a dumb idea anyways. And it's not even a spell good for anything..."

_ Canticum Caelo, _ the sky spell that was supposed to manipulate the air around the caster to create a unique song. The song was said to reflect the caster as a whole, who they were, what they stood for, everything. It wasn't what Callum was hoping for specifically in a spell for song, but it was interesting enough that he decided he wanted to learn it anyways. Apparently it had a niche purpose in courting or something like that. A pure display of what a person was performed for the person being courted or whatever. He wasn’t going to use it for that. He wanted to use it for himself. But that just brought him to the fact that he was failing to do so, and massively.

He sighed, sitting down on the ground. He was at the top of the Spire again. Despite having less than pleasant memories up here, he knew he wouldn’t be bothered up here. The only person who climbed to the very top of the Spire regularly was Ibis, and he was helping Zubeia. So that meant he could be alone, trying to practice a spell that was making him look like a fool. A fool-minous. He lay down on his back, sighing again and staring up at the sky. It was sunset, so everything around him was a rather beautiful shade of gold. Golds, oranges, yellows, the good stuff. At least he had a pretty view. Perhaps this alone time wasn’t so bad.

“ _ Canticum Caelo… _ ” He breathed again.

He wasn’t really trying to cast it anymore. He didn’t even attempt to draw the rune to match. It was more of a thoughtful mumble. Callum realized that he had no idea what to expect out of a song that reflected himself. He had no idea what it would sound like, or what instruments the spell would mimic for him if he ever got it to work. He couldn’t even begin to imagine one for himself. Something about making a song for yourself using your own head seemed a bit narcissistic.

He could think of one for Rayla though. Of course he could.

Rayla was probably his best muse at this point. She was amazing in every sense of the word. How could he not love and admire her? But when it came to describing a person in song, that was a whole different area of expertise. Something like that took the act of speaking in song to the next level, and he could barely grasp the concept on a good day. He supposed he could work on understanding it better, but it would still take time. Callum hoped he had a lot of time to spend.

Back to Rayla. If he really thought about it, he’d expect her to sound mystifying and like a role model at the same time. The latter was a very specific type of sound that you would find in something like the song of a hero. But not the typical royal sounding thing either. Did that even make sense? Callum wasn’t even sure he was saying what he was thinking. Though he wasn’t really saying it. Oh, now he was just extremely confused.

Piano. Something soft and common, but arranged in a unique way that made it stand out from everything else. Maybe a bit of harp plucking if he thought about it in the right context. It didn’t really matter how many different instruments could be used to describe someone, only that it sounded right. And despite Rayla being so, so much, surprisingly enough her song only needed a little. But the song itself was far from simple. It was like a classic hero’s tale.

As Callum’s mind filled with the art of song and sound, he sat back up, took another look at the skies around him, then closed his eyes. Deciding to give it one more go just for the hell of it, he took a deep breath, lifted his finger to the air, and drew the pattern he had memorized. He wasn’t looking to see if it worked. He kept his eyes closed, holding onto that little bit of faith he’d had when he took the dive off the Spire, and all but whispered the trigger words.

Through all of this, he failed to notice he was no longer alone.

“ _ Canticum Caelo. _ ”

There was nothing but the sound of the breeze for a moment. The breeze that swirled around him this entire time as he sat at the peak connecting ground and sky. But then… something changed. And there was music there, swirling around him just like the wind. Soft, light, soul-tugging. A call of stringed instruments and what sounded like vocals, high and low pitched together. It sounded like the hope of a young hero, it sounded like the way the sun cast a glow upon the clouds as it set. It sounded like the sky, and it sounded like him. And yet, there was nothing like it. He stood up and opened his eyes, letting out a stiff laugh as he spread his arms out. He could see the spell working as it sung his reflection to him; a current of air barely visible circling around him, like his own personal shield. It was funny, in a way. It almost felt like his heart was singing along.

“Oh… so this is you?”

He startled, whirled around to face his ambusher only to find his wonderful girlfriend standing there on the last step. She had a look of awe and wonder on her face, ears twitching ever so slightly as she listened. It was a good thing the spell didn’t end when Callum lost his complete focus on it.

He cocked his head. “You… you know what this is?”

“I couldn’t find you, so I went asking around. Ibis said you went to talk to Queen Zubeia, so I went to her, and she told me of your earlier conversation and what it was you were doing. Practicing a spell, she told me. There was a curiosity in her voice that made me ask then what the spell was. She told me in full.” She explained with a nod. “But… I don’t know what I was expecting to find when I came up here for you, but I don’t think I ever could have imagined this. This...wow.”

Callum felt a little hesitant and small under her loss for words. It occurred to him then, with his song out in the open like this, it was like his very soul was exposed and vulnerable. Everything he was, just out there to be heard and judged. It made him feel a little on the spot as he wrung his hands together nervously.

“Yeah… I don’t know about it either. I wanted to try it out at least. It took me awhile to actually make the spell work, and I was frustrated with the difficulty, but now I suppose I know why it’s hard. It’s hard to put yourself out there and be this vulnerable with who you are. I… I’m not sure if I’ll ever do this spell again really.” He finished lamely, looking at the ground.

He heard Rayla step closer to him. He felt her hands on either side of his face, prompting him to look at her. She had the more gentle smile on, eyes warm and soft for him.

“Callum, it’s lovely. You’re lovely.” She reassured him.

He smiled back sheepishly. “Oh, you’re just saying that because I’m your boyfriend.”

She smiled back at him playfully, picking up on the teasing. “Maybe so.” She tilted her head slightly as she continued. “But seriously, Callum. Your song, it’s beautiful. Even if you never let it sing to anyone else ever again, I want you to know that.”

Callum’s smile gave way to happy tears prickling at his eyes as he let out another laugh. They had been intimate like this before, but the spell made it so very different. His entire body felt warm at her words, as he raised his hand to rest on Rayla’s still against his cheek, squeezing it lightly. He removed it from his face briefly to press a kiss to her palm, before bringing it back to his cheek where he nuzzled it slightly. “Thank you.”

Rayla’s loving smile couldn’t get any wider as she nodded slightly. Her eyes bore into him with such love and acceptance, such awe and wonder, that it was a miracle Callum’s legs didn’t give out underneath him. He was so hopelessly, foolishly in love with the elf in front of him, the elf that he took a journey across the world with, the elf who stood before him now with every ounce of acceptance of who he was. And it was with no uncertainty that he leaned in and captured Rayla’s lips with his own, pouring just as much of his soul into her as he had done with the spell that encircled them, singing to them the song of Callum’s soul.

Perhaps he had ended up using the spell for courting in a way after all.

* * *

_[Canticum Caelo](https://soundcloud.com/user-854527998/canticum-caelo) _

**Author's Note:**

> The link at the end is to the song. Pls give it a listen I spent the better part of my day suffering through a broken fucking program to create it. My brain still hurts man. H.
> 
> Anyways after this I'll probably go back to mainly updating Primal Groupchat lol. Idk what I wanna do with this mini AU. I just wanted to do random shit.
> 
> DISCORD: https://discord.gg/nM7XTfQ  
> (Please do note that when joining the server you have to post in the #introductions channel first so I can assign you a proper role and then you'll have access to the main chat~)


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